New building in the Institute of Technology Tralee will drive development in Kerry – Griffin

Brendan Griffin TD
Kerry

16th October 2017

New building in the Institute of Technology Tralee will drive development in Kerry – Griffin

A new building planned for the Institute of Technology campus will drive local and regional development according to Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin TD

The new project was announced by the Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton and the Minister of State for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O’Connor and is set to be included in the Department of Education and Skills’ latest Public Private Partnership (PPP) Programme.

Minister Griffin said: “This announcement fulfils a key commitment in the Action Plan for Education, which aims to make the Irish education and training service the best in Europe within a decade and is great news for Kerry and the region as a whole.

“It will see enhanced opportunities for students to reach their potential in areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

“The new building in IT Tralee will be home to STEM Buildings in the North Campus. This underlines this Governments strong commitment to STEM, which includes other areas like Information and Communications Technology (ICT), engineering and life sciences to drive regional development.

“This development of the IT Tralee campus will help drive regional development and meet many of the skills needs that have been identified by the National Skills Council and the regional skills forum, which was established earlier this year by Minister Bruton.

“This announcement fulfils a key commitment in the Action Plan for Education, which aims to make the Irish education and training service the best in Europe within a decade and is one of 11 new projects announced at different third level institutions across Ireland.

“Over €200 million is being invested and this will create over 8,000 new student places.

“This PPP Programme is being rolled-out alongside €367 million in funding from the Department of Education and Skills for investment in higher education over the period 2018-2021. Minister Bruton and Minister Mitchell O’Connor secured €257 million of this additional funding in the Budget last week following the mid-term review of the Capital Plan.

“Fine Gael wants to create an environment where people and communities reach their full potential, where there is a threshold below which no one is allowed to fall, and where people have every chance to succeed.

“It is envisaged that these state of the art projects will lead to a step change in STEM-related skills, including ICT, engineering and life sciences across the country and will be transformative for Kerry and the surrounding region,” Minister Griffin said.

Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton said: “Institutes of Technology have been disproportionately affected by the fall-off in capital investment in higher education over the past decade. And yet they have still shown a level of flexibility and innovation that rivals any other sector.

“In recent times the infrastructure hasn’t evolved or improved quickly enough to match their dynamism. We’re starting the process of changing that with this announcement.

“This investment will help cater for new approaches that promote innovation and make use of the latest technologies.”

ENDS

For Further Information please contact Brendan on 087-6528841

Institute of Technology Tralee

The proposed project is the construction of a building to accommodate the STEM School of IT Tralee. The STEM building would be located at the Institute’s north Campus at Dromtacker.